


Found

by orphan_account



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: Adoption, Family, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Teenage Jesse Pinkman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-19 10:24:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22009483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Marie feels a sudden protectiveness over a kid she meets at work -- Jesse Pinkman.
Relationships: Jesse Pinkman & Marie Schrader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53
Collections: Blue Christmeth 2019





	Found

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aluzar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aluzar/gifts).



Just another day at Kleinman Radiology. It gets easy for work days to blend into each other, with how repetitious working can be, but on this particular day, she ends up getting a special case. One that really stands out to her, so to speak. Her latest patient is a sixteen year old boy who came in for what doctors suspect is a broken arm. The description alone makes Marie cringe sympathetically, but when she actually sees the kid, she feels an even greater pang of heartache for him. He's about 5'7", skinny as a twig, and shaking like a leaf. Maybe Marie herself isn't a parent, but she's overwhelmed with a sudden feeling of protectiveness when her eyes meet his watery blues. He really looks like he’s been through the ringer.

There's also the fact that he doesn't have anyone accompanying him.

"Hey, sweetie," Marie practically coos to the kid, her gaze as sympathetic as her words are in tone. "I'm gonna try to make this as quick and easy as possible for you, okay?"

The boy nods. "Okay," he replies, voice raw and wavering, his eyes falling to the cold floor below him. The longer Marie looks at him, the more she wants to know just _how_ he got hurt. Who would do something so violent to someone so young? With her own nosy nature, she’s compelled to ask this kid that very question. Yet, she must do her job before anything else.

"You're Jesse Pinkman, right?" She keeps her words gentle and steady.

Jesse swallows down a lump in his throat, managing to look at Marie and nod his head. "Yeah, that's… that's me, yo. Guilty as charged." He smiles weakly, and he looks like he’s trying to make a joke, but he’s far too sad for it to execute successfully.

"Jesse, my name's Marie. I'm going to be your technician today." Offering a sympathetic smile, Marie gestures toward the room in which he will receive his aforementioned x-ray. "I'm gonna have you go into that room and stand real still for me, all right? Then I can get your x-ray done real quick."

"All right," Jesse replies, and goes into the very room that Marie mentioned.

"It'll just be a minute while I get everything all set up," she tells him from the intercom on the other side. "Are you all alone here? Are your parents here with you?"

The question makes Jesse’s face fall, even more than it already had before. “God, no. They couldn’t come. They’re, like, _way_ too busy working, so…" Trailing off, his unscathed hand fidgets anxiously. "It’s -- it’s just me.”

"Well now, that doesn't seem fair to you at all," Marie replies sympathetically. "I'm gonna need you to stand still for a few seconds so I can get the x-ray done, okay honey?"

"All right."

As Marie works her x-ray magic, she silently judges Jesse's parents for not being here to support him, even though she doesn't really know them. Well, she knows _one_ thing about them, and that they're prioritizing work over their own son. What kind of parents would do that to their kid? How did he even _get_ a broken arm like this? Was it accidental, or was he in some kind of danger?

Her internal monologue could go on endlessly, but she brings herself back into the moment as she finishes up the x-ray and instructs Jesse to come out.

"We're all done. You can step on out of the room."

Jesse ends up having to wait for the doctor to collect him. Marie stands near to him like a concerned mother goose watching over her eggs.

"Is it broken?" The boy asks.

"It looks like you have a little fracture," is all Marie can say, as they'd get pissy if a _humble technician_ like herself pointed out the obvious. "But I can promise you this, you're gonna get patched up real nice. We've got good people working here. They'll take care of you."

Hearing that his arm is broken doesn't really cheer Jesse up, but the assurance that he'll be taken care of seems to tide him over for the timebeing. "Thanks, Ms., uh…" Eying Marie, his baby blues fall upon her name tag. "Schrader."

" _Mrs_. Shrader," Marie gently corrects, smiling in a bittersweet kind of way as the doctor arrives to guide Jesse onward. Poor kid.

* * *

It's a good few months before Jesse Pinkman appears in Marie's life again. She gets a call from Hank about how he's got to work a bit late _'cause of that Pinkman kid_ , who apparently got thrown in jail for a few nights because of a _marijuana possession_. Minor stuff, he tells her, but it's enough to drive Marie's curiosity through the roof.

Of course, she drives over to pay a visit to the kid. She uses the excuse that she's just going to see her husband and even stops by _Donut Mart_ to pick up some donuts for him and the boys at the station. But she's really _mostly_ here to see the kid --- that same kid who came into her job with those teary blue eyes, who's now been busted for having _illegal drugs_.

"You know, babe, this is so wild. Really, it's just super _weird_ ," she's telling Hank, hands gesticulating emphatically as she talks.

"Yeah? What's that, Marie?" Hank looks over to her, his attention half-consumed by the paperwork he's looking over. He doesn’t appear to be paying full attention, but Marie will continue anyhow.

"That Pinkman kid you arrested…" Her purple nails tap against Hank’s desk. "He must be the same one that I gave an x-ray to all those months back. I mean, really, what are the _odds_ of that?"

"No idea," Hank replies, and he's clearly distracted by his work, which means that Marie might just have to say something _really_ out there to catch his attention. And so, she does.

"I might just have to pay him a visit, if he's still around here."

Now, _that_ does indeed successfully catch Hank's attention. "Really? You want to talk to some teenage druggie burnout that just got arrested? What kind of conversation did you have when you gave him that x-ray?" He sounds almost amused, playful even, so Marie won't take his words as anything angry or annoyed.

"Really, he seems like a nice kid when I last saw him. Maybe I can go talk some sense into him." Marie raises her eyebrows, making a gesture that suggests she's heading in the right direction.

"Hey, if you want to go do that, be my guest. He's over in the holding cells." Her husband nods towards the direction of the cells. "I don't know how much luck you're going to get, sweetie, but go for it."

Giving a little smirk, Marie heads towards the holding cells. "That's a challenge I'll happily accept."

It's not hard to find Jesse in the cells. He's sitting there quietly, looking just as glum as he did the day that Marie met him. Jesus, he’s still so small. Is _pot_ really all he’s on? When he notices her standing there on the other side of the bars, however, his head picks up just slightly.

"Mrs. Schrader?" _Druggie burnout_ or not, he recognizes her and has the decency to remember her name, and that alone earns a bit of respect from her. "What are you…" He begins to ask.

"My husband is a DEA agent," Marie interjects, holding one finger in the air. "But enough about me, Jesse. What are _you_ doing here?"

"Got busted for having some weed," Jesse glumly replies. "It's bullshit."

"Well, now, why did you have that with you?"

Jesse gives her a weird look, slouching over and narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Uh, why do you care? Is this, like, some kinda interrogation?"

"What?" Marie's eyes widen. " _No._ I'm just --- concerned, you know?" Folding her arms over her chest, she eyes Jesse for a moment before asking, "How's your arm?"

The question seems to catch the kid off guard. "It's… it's better." His shoulders fall and he shifts his disposition to one that's much more sheepish. "Thanks for asking. You were pretty nice to me before. Most adults just… _aren't_ like that."

"Maybe you wouldn't need all of that _marijuana_ if you had more adults being nice to you, huh?"

Jesse rolls his eyes. "Maybe. What's it matter to you, anyway?" He seems entirely suspicious about Marie's concern toward him, like it really is a rare occasion that any adult shows kindness toward him. It's kind of heartbreaking, really.

"I just, um…" Marie really doesn't know how to answer that question. "I just care. I think if I had a kid who was getting into this kind of trouble, I'd want to have a good long talk about how dangerous it is and find a way to… I don't know, redirect that behavior to something more productive and healthy."

"Uh-huh?" Jesse's barely amused, leaning back against the wall of the cold little cell. "And what do _you_ do for your kids?"

Marie frowns. "I don't have any children."

"Oh. Sorry, yo. Didn't mean to, like, assume stuff about you."

"It's okay," replies Marie, not offended. "Your parents working again today?"

To that question, Jesse just shrugs. "Not like I would know. They kicked me out weeks ago."

Marie's face falls. "Oh, no. I'm so sorry. Where are you… _you know…"_

"Where am I what?"

 _"Staying._ Where are you staying, honey?"

"Out on the streets, for now." Taking a deep breath, Jesse shrugs his shoulders. "Well, I kinda bounce back and forth between my friends' places, but sometimes a bench ends up being my home for the night. I stayed at my aunt's place for a while, but she…"

He doesn't finish that sentence. Marie can guess it didn't end well with his aunt. She decides to take action right then and there.

It takes some convincing for Hank to agree to bring the kid home, but Marie is honestly quite good at convincing anyhow. Soon enough, Jesse is out of that jail cell and in the Schrader residence. Marie and Hank pay for the bail.

Hank says that this will just be for one night, but the look in his eyes says otherwise.

"Why are you doing this for me?" He asks as he watches Marie set up the guest bedroom for him to sleep in. "I mean, why are you being so nice?"

Marie give him a supportive little pat on the shoulder, smiling kindly. "I just think it's about time that someone is nice to you, don't you?"

Those words get a little smile out of Jesse. "I'm not complaining about it, Mrs. Shrader. Thanks for havin' me."

"You are _more_ than welcome, Jesse. Now, let's get some dinner in you."

* * *

One night turns into two, which in turn becomes three. Then, a week passes and Jesse is still there, and then a month. Disturbingly, they never even hear from Jesse's parents while he's here with them.

Well, until many months down the line, when Marie and Hank officially sign the adoption papers. Marie can't help but scoff at them, but in the end, she's the one who's lucky to have Jesse.

In the end, both of them get the family they need.


End file.
